Kristians Pelss saw his rookie professional season go sideways last week when the Stockton Thunder forward received a 21-game suspension from the ECHL. In the words of the league, “Pelss delivered a two-handed, forceful slash, behind the play, to the face of an unsuspecting opponent, causing an injury.” Said opponent was Olivier Malka (a.k.a. Olivier Dame-Malka), a defenceman with the Bakersfield Condors who has not played since that December 1 encounter.

Given that Pelss somehow went unpenalized at the time of the incident, I was pretty sure there must be video evidence even though the league itself suggested there wasn’t. Sure enough the Internet finally came through, as this Vimeo of the incident was published by the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette. (If you’re thinking Fort Wayne is a long way from Stockton and Bakersfield, you’d be correct, but they are in the same league.)

The quality of the video is poor, with the incident taking place at the extreme left edge of the frame between 0:02 and 0:03 of the 14-second clip. It is a “nothing play” gone wrong: Pelss (#20 in white) comes wide down the left wing and fires a low-angle shot/pass across the goal mouth. Malka (#44 red) stays with Pelss, and seems to catch him with a backhanded slash of his own in the wrist area just as the Latvian crosses the goal line. Moreover, Malka appears to have turned the stick over, so it’s as much a small spear as it is a slash. Here’s a screen capture:

With the puck now ringing the far corner, Malka takes one further step to eliminate his man from the play, and Pelss wheels and slashes him. It’s a bit of a whack, no question, but the 5’10 Pelss’s hands and stick were below his shoulder level. His opponent, however, is also just 5’10, and bent at the waist. Again, a screen capture:

Pelss’ gloves appear to be parallel and below shoulder level, although the blade of his stick appears to have come up. Watching and rewatching the ultra-brief sequence on video I’m left with the impression that Pelss’ stick likely glanced off Malka’s shoulder pads and caught him under the visor.

Of course you can’t see this last detail on that grainy video, but it is graphically apparent in this Twitterpic published by Malka’s teammate Francis Meilleur the next day, Dec 2. Uhh, yeah. Not sure if the busted tooth is fresh or not, but otherwise the hashtag #SquirrelFace says it all.

For what it’s worth, Malka is no angel if you judge two different seasons over 100 PiM in the Q, and a further 108 minutes in his first 56 ECHL games, spread over the past two seasons. Neither is Pelss any shrinking violet, with 95 PiM and a four-game suspension on his WHL resume last season. Two smaller guys who are willing to battle to make the bigs.

To one who has seen literally thousands of exchanges between players over the years, the low-resolution version of this one gives every appearance of Malka catching Pelss in a tender spot and his opponent retaliating with the lumber. Very late, though, and obviously too high. Maybe stretching the definition of a “hockey play”, but nothing we haven’t seen before. Nonetheless, the consequences were grim, the league chose to crack down real hard, and that’s their call.

On top of this came the rather curious news yesterday that Pelss has been promoted to the Oklahoma City Barons. There was considerable speculation at first as to whether the organization had ideas of circumventing the suspension, before Barons insider Eric Rodgers tweeted that “Per Todd Nelson: Pelss will only practice with the #OKCBarons and will still serve his ECHL suspension. #Oilers”

In a terrific piece titled AHL Reciprocity and the Case of Kristians Pelss, Patricia Teter of Artfulpuck investigated further and determined that Pelss will sit the number of days of the suspension rather than the number of games, meaning Pelss will be eligible to play for the Barons on January 12, the same date he would return to action if still (or returned to) the Thunder. In the instance that Pelss gets his next crack with the Barons, his suspension would in one sense be “shortened” to 17 games. I agree with her take that this is a perfectly legitimate interpretation by the Barons and nothing resembling an end run.

In the short term, wherever Pelss is he can practice but not play. He’s on KP, so to speak. The organization has determined it is better for him to cool his heels somewhere other than Stockton, and it’s probably a good decision. As Todd Nelson put it last night:

[Pelss] is going to come back here and skate with us and work out with us. He has to serve his suspension so that’s basically all it is. We just want to have him up here where we can have him work out with Kevin Hanlon, our strength and conditioning coach. [He’ll] work out with us on the ice, because Kevin’s here if our team goes on the road so he’s still going to get workouts and skates even if we’re on the road. So it’s a better situation versus maybe staying in Stockton and not doing much on his own because there is no person there to look over him. He’s on his way here tonight, and he will be skating with us tomorrow and working out with us until his suspension is served. He’s a prospect of the organization and we want to keep an eye on him and just make sure that he’s staying in shape and still at a high level so when he does come back he’s able to compete and do very well.”

Sounds like a reasoned, reasonable outcome. Despite appearances of a promotion, I have little doubt that Kristians Pelss would rather be playing games in Stockton than not playing them in OKC. It does make the best of a bad situation, gets him time with more skilled players (including a few supremely so), not to mention that strength and conditioning coach.

For now, Pelss himself doesn’t seem to be talking, at least not at this distance. But he did talk to his close friend Marty Gernat of the Oil Kings. I asked Gernat last Friday whether Pelss felt he got a bad deal, and he replied: “Yeah, I think so. For a high stick, 21 games is too much.”

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